I am waiting for the dictators to go and for Arabs to regain prosperity, dignity and respect. We were for a long time humiliated by history, by the US, by Israel, by our dictators...
I am proud of my fellow Arabs on the street. Israel and the US, helped by Bin Laden, tried to pin on us the image of terrorists. We are tired of the lies and the arrogance of USrael and our dictators who erected walls of misperceptions, misunderstandings and miscalculations around us.
Recent developments in Lebanon, Tunisia, and Egypt are eloquent rebuttals of the US policy in the Arab world.
The walls are starting to fall and Arabs are finding one voice and this one voice is 'NO' to the US and their policies in the region.
Khalass, Kefaya, Enough...
29.1.11
Lebanon's final revolution?
I read this analysis from Nicholas Noe in the Times. Agree with much of it. But the central question raised in the article is: how much is the US willing to go against its own interests in the region in order to please Israel? And the answer in my opinion is: to the point of political suicide.
By Noe's own admission, the New York Times was sensitive to everything concerning Israel in his article and suggested rewriting...
Lebanon has always been the mirror of the power equation in the region and for now, the US has lost, but I am not sure that Israel won either. Israel's intransigence derives from a deep belief that it can resolve anything to its own advantage by wars, not political strategy, not negotiations, not anything else except war and spin... So it is pretty sure that there will be another war with Lebanon. But Israel's wars are turning worldwide and Arab public opinion against Israel. This is a country that can only live through wars...
It is an extraordinary phenomenon that a small country imposes its own hostile agenda for years with no respect for international law and human rights and get cheers, nods, and material and monetary support from other countries...This is something I can hardly understand...
By Noe's own admission, the New York Times was sensitive to everything concerning Israel in his article and suggested rewriting...
Lebanon has always been the mirror of the power equation in the region and for now, the US has lost, but I am not sure that Israel won either. Israel's intransigence derives from a deep belief that it can resolve anything to its own advantage by wars, not political strategy, not negotiations, not anything else except war and spin... So it is pretty sure that there will be another war with Lebanon. But Israel's wars are turning worldwide and Arab public opinion against Israel. This is a country that can only live through wars...
It is an extraordinary phenomenon that a small country imposes its own hostile agenda for years with no respect for international law and human rights and get cheers, nods, and material and monetary support from other countries...This is something I can hardly understand...
28.1.11
''Dealing With Assange'': The Arrogance Of The Times
There is arrogance in the way the N Y T portrays Assange and their venture into the world of real news. Instead of dissing on him they should be thankful for having been fed real news for once and not lies as was the case with their star reproter Judith Miller.
The Time, always unapologetic...
The Time, always unapologetic...
26.1.11
Lebanon: The 'civility', and the ignorance, of March 14th.
Every time Lebanon is steered in the direction of USrael it goes in the other direction. This artificial entity that is the Lebanese state is based on two tendencies: pro-western (which is now synonymous of USrael) and anti-western (which is now synonymous of resistance to USrael). The bitter taste US policies have left in the region and in Lebanon has increased anti-western sentiment and therefore sympathy for the resistance (i.e. Hezbollah), especially among christians.
I was in lebanon recently and I noticed a clear increase in support for Hassan Nasrallah among Lebanese christians. The riots that are being held in Tripoli to protest the ousting of Hariri and March 14th from forming the Lebanese government can only reinforce this anti March 14th and anti-USrael sentiment among christians. Christians in the north for example did not forget Nahr-el-Bared and the impact of sunni radicalization and its backing by Hariri, and christians in traditionally Lebanese Forces (formerly Phalanges) dominated areas are tired of Geagea and Gemayel leading the community to disaster by forming alliances with enemies of Lebanon (Israel), they see what happened to christians in Iraq and Egypt and know that the US won't lift a finger for them.
My guess also is that, here again, the region's new political equilibrium is being played before our eyes in Lebanon. Entangled in two wars, with an economic crisis, unemployment and social unrest, and devoid of a clear Middle East policy, except the one that is dictated by Israel, the US is becoming weak in the Middle East and its allies are noticing. Pro-US dictators are increasingly fragile and Hariri was probably let down by his Saudi mentors who, in turn, fear being let down by the US if their unpopular regime is threatened by the street (as in Tunisia). Saudi Arabia has been damaged by the recent revelations of wikileaks in which it appears as a staunch USrael ally and it cannot afford right now to be seen more USrael aligned, disconnected from Arab public opinion.
Hariri ignores Lebanon's history. He should know better, and the US should know better. No one can impose a unilateral direction to politics in Lebanon. Lebanon as an artificial entity created by the post Ottoman French mandate can live only by consensus, and Lebanon has always been the mirror of the power equation in the region. Instead of going to the streets young Hariri, the leader of March 14th, should learn his lesson from playing it along the US and Israel and against national Lebanese interests (which are survival by consensus). He should accept the new power equation.
Angry Arab: Mini-Hariri self-destructing before our eyes.
Foreign Policy on Lebanese Christian community's support for Hezbollah.
I was in lebanon recently and I noticed a clear increase in support for Hassan Nasrallah among Lebanese christians. The riots that are being held in Tripoli to protest the ousting of Hariri and March 14th from forming the Lebanese government can only reinforce this anti March 14th and anti-USrael sentiment among christians. Christians in the north for example did not forget Nahr-el-Bared and the impact of sunni radicalization and its backing by Hariri, and christians in traditionally Lebanese Forces (formerly Phalanges) dominated areas are tired of Geagea and Gemayel leading the community to disaster by forming alliances with enemies of Lebanon (Israel), they see what happened to christians in Iraq and Egypt and know that the US won't lift a finger for them.
My guess also is that, here again, the region's new political equilibrium is being played before our eyes in Lebanon. Entangled in two wars, with an economic crisis, unemployment and social unrest, and devoid of a clear Middle East policy, except the one that is dictated by Israel, the US is becoming weak in the Middle East and its allies are noticing. Pro-US dictators are increasingly fragile and Hariri was probably let down by his Saudi mentors who, in turn, fear being let down by the US if their unpopular regime is threatened by the street (as in Tunisia). Saudi Arabia has been damaged by the recent revelations of wikileaks in which it appears as a staunch USrael ally and it cannot afford right now to be seen more USrael aligned, disconnected from Arab public opinion.
Hariri ignores Lebanon's history. He should know better, and the US should know better. No one can impose a unilateral direction to politics in Lebanon. Lebanon as an artificial entity created by the post Ottoman French mandate can live only by consensus, and Lebanon has always been the mirror of the power equation in the region. Instead of going to the streets young Hariri, the leader of March 14th, should learn his lesson from playing it along the US and Israel and against national Lebanese interests (which are survival by consensus). He should accept the new power equation.
Angry Arab: Mini-Hariri self-destructing before our eyes.
Foreign Policy on Lebanese Christian community's support for Hezbollah.
24.1.11
Farewell to peace in the Middle East
A decade of US sponsored Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are leaked today by Al-Jazeera and The Guardian. The documents will be published over the next few days.
The minutes were recorded by the Palestinian based, UK sponsored, Negotiations Support Unit (NSU).
They show:
- On the Palestinian side: despair, humiliation, and endless concessions.
- On the Israeli side: extreme intransigence, contempt for Palestinians, and unwillingness to achieve peace.
- On the US side: total lack of neutrality always siding with Israel, absence of a genuine will to achieve peace, and contempt for Palestinians to the point of crude cruelty.
The peace process has long been dead and successive US and Israeli administrations were playing a sadistic game with Palestinians and their aspirations for peace and statehood while trying to convince us that they were working for peace.
The full Palestine papers page at The Guardian website.
The Palestine papers page on Al-Jazeera website.
Seumas Milne: Only Authentic leaders can deliver a Middle East Peace
The minutes were recorded by the Palestinian based, UK sponsored, Negotiations Support Unit (NSU).
They show:
- On the Palestinian side: despair, humiliation, and endless concessions.
- On the Israeli side: extreme intransigence, contempt for Palestinians, and unwillingness to achieve peace.
- On the US side: total lack of neutrality always siding with Israel, absence of a genuine will to achieve peace, and contempt for Palestinians to the point of crude cruelty.
The peace process has long been dead and successive US and Israeli administrations were playing a sadistic game with Palestinians and their aspirations for peace and statehood while trying to convince us that they were working for peace.
The full Palestine papers page at The Guardian website.
The Palestine papers page on Al-Jazeera website.
Seumas Milne: Only Authentic leaders can deliver a Middle East Peace
13.1.11
The tribunal of discord
The killers of Lebanon, its economy and its population, before, during and after the civil war, were never brought to justice. They were freed and pardoned and elected to parliament in the name of national concord and unity.
From the beginning, the STL was a political instrument and an instrument of discord, because it accepted 'doing justice' to one man, while forgetting the many victims of those who are claiming justice for this man.
If Saad Hariri wants unity and peace for Lebanon, so he must shut disavow the tribunal. If the international community wants justice for Lebanon, so it must bring total justice, not partial and misguided justice.
Lebanon's 'unity' government falls.
Shut down this tribunal!
From the beginning, the STL was a political instrument and an instrument of discord, because it accepted 'doing justice' to one man, while forgetting the many victims of those who are claiming justice for this man.
If Saad Hariri wants unity and peace for Lebanon, so he must shut disavow the tribunal. If the international community wants justice for Lebanon, so it must bring total justice, not partial and misguided justice.
Lebanon's 'unity' government falls.
Shut down this tribunal!
7.1.11
Wikileaks: Israeli Corruption At Gaza Checkpoints
U.S. businesses allege that corruption by Israeli officials at Karni crossing is impeding their access to the Gaza market. As of late May 34 shipments of American goods, amounting to nearly USD 1.9 million dollars, have been waiting three to four months to cross into Gaza. U.S. distributors assert they are being asked to pay "special fees" which amount to as much as 75 times the standard processing fee as quoted by GOI officials. According to one major American distributor, corruption extends to Karni management and involves logistics companies working as middlemen for military and civilian officials at the terminal.
Abuse of human rights goes with corruption. Israel lovers have to admit that Israel is like any other corrupt middle eastern regime. How do you want an occupation regime that defies UN resolutions and human rights to be moral?
Abuse of human rights goes with corruption. Israel lovers have to admit that Israel is like any other corrupt middle eastern regime. How do you want an occupation regime that defies UN resolutions and human rights to be moral?
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